Writing off our neediest

Disabled residents pushed to the brink before getting help

Nov. 3, 2013

One of the very basic, fundamental functions of our state government, besides taxes, roads and prisons, is helping to take care of people who cannot take care of themselves. At this, Tennessee does a deplorable job.

Tennesseans who have intellectual or developmental disabilities — people with an IQ of 70 or less — struggle with the circumstances of their existence, but thousands of them also are left hanging when what they need is long-term care, far more than a caregiver can provide.

State lawmakers know it and the state comptroller knows it. It is unclear whether the agency actually in charge, the Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (DIDD), truly knows it. An audit disclosed nine “serious problems” at DIDD, among them the ridiculous wait for services.

Through at least three governors, that agency or its predecessors have kept thousands of residents waiting. They have language disorders, behavioral disorders, autism or other conditions that make them incapable of fending for themselves, even as adults.

Thanks to Medicaid funding, about 8,450 people with intellectual disabilities receive long-term care in residential facilities or other settings. But 7,100 people are on the waiting list, and they can get off the list only if they are declared to be in “crisis”; that is, their caregiver dies, they become homeless or they become a danger to themselves or others. That latter scenario is a strong possibility, since some people have been waiting since 1994.

How long would a hospital, or any service-oriented business, continue to function if it turned away nearly half of its customers?

Meanwhile, a entire separate category of Tennesseans, those who have developmental disabilities, does not even have a list to aspire to. According to the audit findings, DIDD does not even know how many Tennesseans live with developmental disabilities.

Despite the release of the audit and legislative hearings on the matter, there is no sense of urgency to boost services to those with intellectual disabilities or to do more for those with developmental disabilities. Lawmakers at the hearings intoned about helping “the least among us,” without actually committing to do something.

Funds specifically to help Tennesseans with developmental disabilities are readily available to DIDD from the federal government. DIDD Commissioner Debra Payne said — after the hearing — that the agency would begin the process of applying for the funds. Why did DIDD have to be publicly embarrassed before it would take that step?

What has DIDD been doing all this time? For six years consecutively, its budget has been cut, and Gov. Bill Haslam apparently intends to ask for another 5 percent slash in the upcoming budget. Why haven’t DIDD officials been leading the fight to keep funding and also obtain federal funds for these thousands of Tennesseans?

The lives of so many — not just the disabled, but those with caregivers — should not be callously written off.